Thursday, June 16, 2016

A quick update for my friends. Hunter the cat and I have wandered our way to Lynchburg, VA. It was an easy choice. For many years I've had an old friend trying to sell me on the idea of VA. I did some research and confirmed what he had been telling me all along. Temps 5-15 degrees warmer than western, NY. More spring, summer and fall, with less winter. Also a much much lower cost of living.

It seems to be a change that agrees with me. Health issues such as my asthma and allergies aren't bothering me at all. My diabetes seems to be continuing it's path to remission. The only thing bothering me is my arthritic legs when it rains.

There have been a few other changes along the way. A new lady, her 2 young daughters. Another cat and another dog. So far one big happy family. Another 10 months of apartment living and hopefully we will be headed out to the sticks to live.

Friday, January 1, 2016

It's been 30 months since my last post. A lot has happened in those 2-1/2 years. Pelenaka and I have been apart well over a year. The divorce was final early in December. Can't and won't place blame anywhere. Things hadn't been right for nearly 2 years. She suggested we part ways, and honestly, that's all I had been waiting for. I might have stayed for years. But, dreading waking in the morning is no way to live. I had put too many of my hopes and dreams on the back burner too many times and had given up hope.

The Lowes store I had worked in closed at Thanksgiving time in 2011. Over a year of job hunting turned up nothing. I had been advised back in 1998 to look into eventually leaving the work force, due to a injury to my right leg. I stayed with it anyhow. In 2003 I managed to injure myself in the left leg, same injury, not as bad. At that time damage from a long ignored injury in the left leg was discovered. I still kept working while doctors shook their heads at me. Other medical issues complicated matters, pain pills for the legs would flare up another condition, treating that condition made yet a third one act up. By the time our Lowes store closed I had suffered enough pain. I couldn't take another hour on a concrete floor. I went on Social Security Disability.

And I HATE it!! Being the type that leans Libertarian/Conservative makes it even worse. Honestly, it's a trap. One I wish I had never let myself get snared into. That is a subject for a future post. I will be breaking free of this trap. No matter how much physical pain I'll have to suffer. I will break free of it.

What's left of my life is a nearly blank slate at this point. I hope to make the best of it. Spring of 2016 will find me leaving NY. Currently it looks like my new digs will be in western Virginia. Somewhere in the countryside between Lynchburg and Roanoke. There have been other places under consideration. The economics of it, makes it look like Virginia will be the place. If not there not far from it. TN, KY and WV were the other places considered. Those are the places with the weather that my medical conditions can survive in. Also the cost of living that will allow me to pull myself up by my bootstraps with the limited income I have.

So that's what's in store for Woodsrunner and Hunter the cat. Not much to move. A couple sets of tools. A few hunting and fishing items, a bookcase full of books, a table and two chairs, grandma's hope chest and a futon is all that's left. The truck was sold to pay for the divorce. I have a very nice older restoration 66 Plymouth Valiant to get around in. We'll be travelling light into the future. It's a new year and a new life for us.